^ I wouldn't either but that 'circus' is the main part of its appeal imo. Walking down the steps of St Paul's cathedral next to a prince, with a tiara on your head and meters of silk cascading behind you, it is everything you could want in a fairy-tale but reality is ofcourse different

[center]Eternal favorite I understand the flaws many people find with this dress but if I could live a fantasy life, this would be the one

Oooh....I completely agree with you. Princess Diana's dress was just something incredibly special, it's probably not something I would choose for myself, but I still really love it. It's the idea behind the dress even more so then the dress itself. She just embodied the fairytale/royalty wedding idea (though I feel it's important to note that just because she had a fairytale wedding doesn't mean her life was a fairytale. ).

__________________http://miss-rumphius.tumblr.com/ "It is ever so much easier to be good if your clothes are fashionable." Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

I am engaged to be married and the whole theme of the wedding is to honour Africa and especially East Africa, where I come from. We are getting married in Masai Mara, Kenya and I really wanted a one of a kind gown. The general idea of the dress was: simplicity, elegance, history, travel and masai. The gown should be simple and elegant because I could not carry an enormous dress in the middle of nowhere, travel/history was supposed to come from all the fabrics I bought through the year and through all our travel together and the masai bit was supposed to be either included in the design/accessories or the colour.

I recently received a sneek peek/first sketch of my dress. At first I really love it. Now I am more unsure about it.. I had a lot of ideas through my mind and after pinning them all I realise that - for now - I don't see any of those elements (I shared with him) in the design. I think I don't like my dress as much as I should... I don't know what to tell him/what to say. I just know it's not my dream dress yet and I am a bit sad about it

Attached is the sneek peek I got.

Oh and I forgot to say I am working it all on my own as no one is invited and no one knows the when/where/how of the wedding. My friends and family just know I am engaged.. I don't feel confortable engaging my friends and family if they won't even be able to come :/ That's why I need an outsider perspective: honestly, what do you think of it? How should I go about my concerns to the designer? Thank you for your help

Edit: forgot to say that of course my designer lives in Africa while I am in Europe so everything has been through email/skype so far. I am supposed to fly at the end of this month to meet him for the very first time and see the complete sketch (I think..)

But I am not a Masai so I can't wear their traditional attire although one of them will walk me down the aisle .. Plus I really wanted a dress, designed just for me/reflective of my tastes and personality, a one of a kind. No one in my family got married in something else :/ . I guess I am just really frustrated because I can't find any of the details I thought I would have. I feel like this design is lacklustre, lacking fun/fire/personality. But then, I don't know what he could change while still keeping the "simple, elegant, clean line". Ugh >.< I am going to ask for something more detailed, to have a better idea.

eva, my first thought is this is alot to ask of any one dress it's kind of like your inspiration for the dress is pretty abstract, but the dress is necessarily concrete.

you're having the dress designed for you, so I think you will get a one-of-a-kind dress. but i don't know if it can be absolutely everything all rolled into one. iow, one dress cannot be as complex as you and your life

so i do like the idea lucy alludes to of having a wedding wardrobe. perhaps one approach would be to have a western dress, and an african-inspired dress. many brides change for the reception, or have a multi-day event with something diff to wear each day. many asian brides will have a western white gown, & an asian red gown. you could do the same.

getting down to concrete details ... 1) i noticed alot of your inspirations were traditional & lacy. 2) is yellow your color? 3) what fabrics are the starting point for the dress?

__________________There's a need for more individuality today, and my job is to cater to women, not dictate to them. --Alber Elbaz

The problem we have is that it is a bush wedding, held in a bush camp. The camp is so remote that they only have 5 other tents and it takes 5 hours from Masai mara airport to get there. Since we take a very small plane from Nairobi, we are limited to 15kg (or 10kg pp) so I can't afford to bring too many things. The other issue is: my wedding ceremony will actually be the first stop before a world tour.. We still don't know if we will fly back to where we live for me to store the dress or if it will stay with the designer and go back to South Africa..
Other issue we have: it will only be us, in a bush camp. We won't have the traditional reception, we won't held a religious ceremony either (we don't share the same one). So it's really just a dress for the civil ceremony with the Kenyan authority and the whole day doing game drive and moving around in my dress to take pictures..

This I am not sure how useful having 2 dresses could be, and I wouldn't even know how to explain that to the designer who knows the place and my fiancé

On to questions:
Yes traditional and lacy are definitely my inspiration. No yellow is not my colour and I think he picked it because I haven't picked one and I told him I like the idea of earthy tone to remind myself of our surrounding. I also thought it would look great as a contrast to the Masai red attire. I am not even sure I like the wedding dress yellow.. I just knew I was open to something else than white (because it would have gotten really dirty at the camp).
Fabric : we don't know yet.. Well I don't know yet.. I think I don't even know what kind of fabrics wedding gowns are generally made of :/ I just know that it must flow/not be too heavy/not be too warm/I need to be able to breathe and the dress should not restrict any of my movement or feel scratchy or else on my skin..Posted via Mobile Device

The problem we have is that it is a bush wedding, held in a bush camp. The camp is so remote that they only have 5 other tents and it takes 5 hours from Masai mara airport to get there. Since we take a very small plane from Nairobi, we are limited to 15kg (or 10kg pp) so I can't afford to bring too many things. The other issue is: my wedding ceremony will actually be the first stop before a world tour.. We still don't know if we will fly back to where we live for me to store the dress or if it will stay with the designer and go back to South Africa..
Other issue we have: it will only be us, in a bush camp. We won't have the traditional reception, we won't held a religious ceremony either (we don't share the same one). So it's really just a dress for the civil ceremony with the Kenyan authority and the whole day doing game drive and moving around in my dress to take pictures..

This I am not sure how useful having 2 dresses could be, and I wouldn't even know how to explain that to the designer who knows the place and my fiancé

On to questions:
Yes traditional and lacy are definitely my inspiration. No yellow is not my colour and I think he picked it because I haven't picked one and I told him I like the idea of earthy tone to remind myself of our surrounding. I also thought it would look great as a contrast to the Masai red attire. I am not even sure I like the wedding dress yellow.. I just knew I was open to something else than white (because it would have gotten really dirty at the camp).
Fabric : we don't know yet.. Well I don't know yet.. I think I don't even know what kind of fabrics wedding gowns are generally made of :/ I just know that it must flow/not be too heavy/not be too warm/I need to be able to breathe and the dress should not restrict any of my movement or feel scratchy or else on my skin..Posted via Mobile Device

that's good

ok, thanks for this info, really helps.

before i bought my house, i had all these great ideas for decorating it--& they were good ideas. but when i chose a particular house, then appropriateness came into play, & some of those ideas became irrelevant. my house is 1920s english cottage style, very sweet ... & nothing edgy about it. so i found i really needed to tone done some of my ideas ... it's just a simple house & it likes simple things. it probably won't be my last house ... i'll have other opportunities to try other things, perhaps. but i realized i could just let go of some of my ideas, & that would be fine.

so you also have a very specific & unique wedding planned & i would just let it speak to you. at the same time bearing in mind that you will be wearing this dress, not the bush camp

so few thoughts ... the sketch does not look to be of a dress that will allow you to move freely. i would think you'd want a full skirt for that, possibly tea length. if you're concerned about dirt, my first move would be to keep it off the ground.

secondly, the color needs to be flattering on you most importantly, whatever it is. my impression based on the colors you wear is that a dusty earthtone may not be so good on you. what about oyster white?

third, if it were me, i'd probably just go for it with an african-inspired dress, & buy the lacy white stuff for the wedding night. you could always renew your vows in a traditional western gown. i think you're right that for this particular occasion, one & only one dress is appropriate.

otoh, if anything else just doesn't seem right, if you must have a traditional lacy dress, then do that, make it something you can move in that won't drag on the ground.

remember that the honor is all in your heart this is really just about what you truly want to be wearing on this day in this place.

__________________There's a need for more individuality today, and my job is to cater to women, not dictate to them. --Alber Elbaz

Do you guys know a lot about wedding dresses or wedding dress companies?

This is a really weird request but my mother always had wedding dress magazines around when I was growing up. I saw an ad that I think was 1990s or at the most, early 2000s.

It's an Italian bridal dress company (I think). When I think of the name I think of a long Italian sounding name starting with P. (I could be wrong, old memory).

The ad is of a woman with her back turned to the camera and she's looking over her shoulder to the camera. She is standing in front of a man who (I think) is facing the camera, and has her hand on his shoulder.

The reason I ask is because I know it's an incredibly long shot but this was my dream dress as a kid. I really thought I kept the picture but don't know where it is now. I live in Canada, so I'd assume the brand was based in North America.

before i bought my house, i had all these great ideas for decorating it--& they were good ideas. but when i chose a particular house, then appropriateness came into play, & some of those ideas became irrelevant. my house is 1920s english cottage style, very sweet ... & nothing edgy about it. so i found i really needed to tone done some of my ideas ... it's just a simple house & it likes simple things. it probably won't be my last house ... i'll have other opportunities to try other things, perhaps. but i realized i could just let go of some of my ideas, & that would be fine.

so you also have a very specific & unique wedding planned & i would just let it speak to you. at the same time bearing in mind that you will be wearing this dress, not the bush camp

so few thoughts ... the sketch does not look to be of a dress that will allow you to move freely. i would think you'd want a full skirt for that, possibly tea length. if you're concerned about dirt, my first move would be to keep it off the ground.

secondly, the color needs to be flattering on you most importantly, whatever it is. my impression based on the colors you wear is that a dusty earthtone may not be so good on you. what about oyster white?

third, if it were me, i'd probably just go for it with an african-inspired dress, & buy the lacy white stuff for the wedding night. you could always renew your vows in a traditional western gown. i think you're right that for this particular occasion, one & only one dress is appropriate.

otoh, if anything else just doesn't seem right, if you must have a traditional lacy dress, then do that, make it something you can move in that won't drag on the ground.

remember that the honor is all in your heart this is really just about what you truly want to be wearing on this day in this place.

Thank you very much for your input. I think I need to decide first and foremost if I truly want a true African inspired dress or a western one. Seems like the two can't mesh for me.

Right now I will definitely say "an African dress" and that would mean starting back to square one. It's scary but I think it truly is what I want.

Re the western dress for renewal: our family want something in Europe and we already had in mind to do something here for our 10 years anniversary. I think we will do just that and I will enjoy the lingerie shopping in the mean time haha

Colour: you are absolutely right. I have chocolate skin with gold undertone. I need to pin my Mac foundation. I will look into oyster white, and will probably try to incorporate some blue (turquoise?) or some orange based red. Blue + white would be a dream for my fiancé

Length: I have never tried anything in length in between the knees and below my ankle. Don't even know if it will look good but.. I really don't want to destroy my dress on my wedding day.. I so wanted a train though. Will save it for the western ceremony

All in all, great advices ta-ta. Will keep you updated Posted via Mobile Device

Do you guys know a lot about wedding dresses or wedding dress companies?

This is a really weird request but my mother always had wedding dress magazines around when I was growing up. I saw an ad that I think was 1990s or at the most, early 2000s.

It's an Italian bridal dress company (I think). When I think of the name I think of a long Italian sounding name starting with P. (I could be wrong, old memory).

The ad is of a woman with her back turned to the camera and she's looking over her shoulder to the camera. She is standing in front of a man who (I think) is facing the camera, and has her hand on his shoulder.

The reason I ask is because I know it's an incredibly long shot but this was my dream dress as a kid. I really thought I kept the picture but don't know where it is now. I live in Canada, so I'd assume the brand was based in North America.

do we have a place in magazines where you can ask? does justaguy have any bridal magazines?

__________________There's a need for more individuality today, and my job is to cater to women, not dictate to them. --Alber Elbaz

Thank you. That was very nice of you. I tried to Google 'pronovias' in many different types of searches/ sentences but couldn't find it. Pronovias seems to have many ads with just a single girl, and they seem to have very modern, streamlined dresses.

This was a very complicated, overly romantic dress in the Renaissance style. Lots of flowers/details etc. The woman has her back to the camera and looks over her shoulder, and is standing against a man's chest. I think it's a very long, complicated, ethnic sounding company name. Oh sigh, I hope I have the old scan somewhere in my parents' house.